After noon, when Qi Jing came back driving a mule cart, he saw Tang Shiyue standing at the door of the wing, looking at him with shining eyes.
Qi Jing couldn't help but smile.
Although he knew that she did it for the money, her expression made him feel as if his return was highly anticipated, and he felt inexplicably good.
He stopped the mule, turned around and picked up Qi Yang. He held him face down. The little guy was asleep. There was no bandage on his back, but it seemed to have been cleaned, and the blisters seemed to have been pricked and applied with yellow ointment.
Tang Shiyue took a closer look and asked, "Did you change the medicine?"
Qi Jing nodded. He tilted his head to signal her to go to the carriage, and Tang Shiyue went to the carriage to take down the backpack. The village doctor's second son came over to say hello and took the mule away. Tang Shiyue then went back to the room, calling Xiao Yaoer, "Yaoer, go watch at the door, and let me know if anyone comes."
Xiao Yaoer responded and skipped out. Qi Jing's ears were slightly hot, but his face was calm. He carefully placed Qi Yang on the couch and let him lie on the pillow. Then he turned around and said, "Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission."
She came closer with shining eyes: "How much?"
Qi Jing wanted to take a step back as usual, but stopped halfway. He looked at her thick and long eyelashes from a very close distance: "It was sold for 5,600 taels. I took 5,500 taels in banknotes and exchanged 100 taels for small change." He took out a box from his backpack and handed it to her.
Wow! I'm rich! This is more than five million in modern times!
...
...
Tang Shiyue was delighted and opened the box without hesitation and flipped through it quickly.
The silver bills of the Dayan Dynasty were divided into official bills and private bills, with the smallest denomination being ten taels and the largest being one thousand taels. However, in a small town like theirs, there were generally no silver bills of one thousand taels. This stack was all one hundred taels, and each one was about one-third the size of an A4 paper, covered with black and red words and stamped with various seals.
Tang Shiyue took out five hundred taels of silver notes and sixty taels of silver ingots and gave them to him, which was the tenth agreed upon in advance.
Qi Jing looked at her. She looked calm, and obviously thought it was natural. Qi Jing calmly took half of it and pushed the three hundred taels back: "Buy your purple fungus."
Tang Shiyue thought about it, nodded, and put the three cards back into the box.
Although the banknotes were not heavy, it was still easy to see with a large stack of papers on him. Tang Shiyue thought about it and only hid the 40 taels of silver. He gave him the box and said, "Can you keep the rest for me?"
Qi Jing frowned and looked at her: "Why?"
She looked up at him, and he said seriously, "It's not that I don't want to help, but you actually trust me?"
Tang Shiyue smiled and said, "This little bit of money probably won't catch your eye."
Qi Jing raised his eyebrows and said sternly, "I am very poor and my family has no extra food."
Tang Shiyue also said seriously: "Some people may not have money, but they have a high level of character. Some people may be extremely wealthy, but they will haggle over a penny. I believe I will not make a mistake in judging people."
Their eyes met for a while, and Qi Jing took the box: "Okay."
Tang Shiyue's face instantly lit up with joy, she stood on tiptoe and patted his shoulder: "Thank you, Jing! From today on, we are brothers."
Brother? He lowered his eyes to look at the little girl who had just hit his chest. She was as thin as a bean sprout. How could she be called a brother?
Qi Jing took a long breath, nodded reluctantly, and then turned his face away silently.
Tang Shiyue smiled and said, "Then I'm ready to leave. What are your plans?"
Qi Jing said in a deep voice, "The house burned down, so I'm going to borrow his place to stay for a few days. By the way," he pointed to the backpack, "the medicine you want is in there, and there's also a small jar of ointment. You can apply it when you get home. It should be better than the powder here."
Tang Shiyue just nodded, looked at Xiao Qi Yang who was still sleeping, then she went out with the backpack, said something to the village doctor, and went home holding Xiao Yao'er's hand.
Many people greeted her along the way, asking her questions all the way to the door of the old house. Tang Guihua heard the voices and ran out, asking angrily, "Where is Qi Xiaolang?"
She went there with a food basket at noon, but found nothing. Tang Shiyue was too lazy to pay attention to her and just said, "I've never seen him." She pushed the door open and went in, closing the gate behind her.
Tang Guihua said angrily: "You shameless little bitch, what do you think you are capable of? How dare you talk to me like that! You are still living in my house! You can only live here if I tell you to, and you have to get out if I don't tell you to!"
Tang Shiyue said, "First, the grandmother rented this house to us, and she collected the money in front of Uncle Tang Er and Uncle Tang Si. Second..." She smiled, "The village doctor's office is crowded with people every day. How long do you think it will take for your yelling and cursing to reach his ears?"
Tang Guihua suddenly choked and stared at her like a chicken with its neck strangled. She didn't say a word, then turned around and left.
Tang Shiyue sighed and went back to the house. When Wang saw the two of them, she scolded them sharply, "You still remember to come back!"
There were a lot of troubles as soon as they came back. Tang Shiyue was a little annoyed and said coldly: "We didn't expect to come back! Yao'er was sick and almost died. I was also seriously ill and couldn't get out of bed for two days. Look, I still have medicine in my hand." She raised the basket: "Did mother also think that we couldn't come back? That's why you didn't even show up?"
Wang was choked up and stared at her. Tang Shiyue said, "The doctor told me to stay in bed and rest. I'll have to trouble you to take care of me tomorrow."
She thought that Mrs. Wang would be rude and accuse her of being unfilial again, but she didn't expect that Mrs. Wang didn't say a word. When she got up early the next morning, Mrs. Wang actually made breakfast for her for the first time!
When something is abnormal, there must be something wrong.
Tang Shiyue remained calm and did not lie down for a whole day. She boiled some water, washed her hair, changed her clothes, asked Xiaoyao to help her apply ointment, and then went to the wine shop to buy five jars of one-jin liquor. She also went to the mountain and picked a full basket of sand apples.
There are a lot of sand apples on Jubao Mountain. Sand apples are mild in nature and sweet in taste. She plans to try making sand apple wine first, but because she has never used wine with such a low alcohol content, she needs to slowly try out the specific ratio.
This recipe, nourishing the kidney and heart, strengthening the essence and replenishing qi, is a common and popular type of wine. Qi Jing was thoughtful and crushed all the herbs according to her instructions, and then packed them separately.
Tang Shiyue picked out the intact sand apples, washed them, drained the water, removed the cores, and sliced them. Then she mixed the sand apple slices with the crushed Chinese medicine in a certain proportion and put them into the wine. However, because she didn't have a scale, the amount was not very accurate. She would buy a scale and a medicine pounding pot later.
The next step is what Grandpa Du calls “the finishing touch”.
She still remembered that the white-haired old man had a naughty smile on his face. He said that when the recipe was passed down, this step was called "enhancing the flavor," but after he improved the recipe, he changed the name of this step to "finishing the finishing touch." After learning this step, the recipe can be changed at will, but if this step is not done well, the finished product will be a mixture of Chinese medicine, sweetness, sourness and other flavors, instead of being completely integrated like a fine wine, sweet and mellow.
Tang Shiyue carefully sealed the jar. Generally, after seven to fifteen days, he could open the jar and taste the wine.
After a busy day, Tang Shiyue felt too lazy to get up the next morning. Unexpectedly, Wang had already made breakfast. After the two sisters got up and had breakfast, Wang said, "You accompany me to the town today." Her tone left no room for doubt.
Tang Shiyue lowered her eyes and said nonchalantly, "I'm not feeling well. I won't go."
Wang said, "Let's take the Chen family's mule cart! It won't tire you out!"
She said, "No money."
Wang choked, then she said, "Mother has money!"
Tsk! You have money now? Tang Shiyue said slowly, "I'm very tired. I think I'm seriously ill. I want to see a doctor today. Since you have money, go by yourself, or ask Yao'er to accompany you."
"You!" Wang's patience ran out, and she glared at him, "Why are you so stubborn? Mother told you to go! You have to go! Who wants to talk to you about these weird things?"
Tang Shiyue looked at her with a half-smile, until she lowered her head, then said: "Since mother thinks that my life is not as important as accompanying you to the town, then how can I not go?"
She stood up and said, "Let's go."
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